losing 20 pounds during marathon training

Lower fat intake

I don't know many 70 mpw runners that have a full 20 lbs to lose. That's a lot. Have you been at that mileage for a while?

If you actually have weight to lose, less calories, but be careful you don't lose good weight. Need the calories to recover. There are better ways to increase your pace than being too underweight.

dietrun wrote:

Has anyone found a safe way to lose twenty pounds during marathon training at approx 70mpw? I'm

not overweight but losing the pounds will for sure help my pace (if I can figure out how to lose the weight without impacting my workouts and health) Tips anyone ?

Yeah, you can do it, but it requires a lot of self control and you will always be hungry.

Ok. You want to know how right? Eat like the weight you want to be.

Please explain? Ok, calculate the basal metabolic rate for the weight you wish to be and start eating only that amount of calories. So if you're 160 now but want to be 140, calculate your BMR for your height, age, sex and being 140. That's what you get to eat.

What about the running? Yes, you can also eat what you burn, but be careful and honest and exact (despite it all being an estimate). Only for running (you do anything else, you don't get to eat for it) and only after you did the run.

Yes, it works. Counting calories sucks. Have I done it? Yes. It really sucked. But, good days and bad days. Worse the first few weeks. Tip: you will need to weigh your food.

To be more specific I'm a 5"4 female runner who weighs 120 pounds and wants to go down to 100 pounds for the marathon. I have weighed 100 pounds before in training and in racing and I both felt and looked better. I don't know any other way to increase my pace given that my training plan is pretty intense as it is

dietrun wrote:

To be more specific I'm a 5"4 female runner who weighs 120 pounds and wants to go down to 100 pounds for the marathon. I have weighed 100 pounds before in training and in racing and I both felt and looked better. I don't know any other way to increase my pace given that my training plan is pretty intense as it is

That would make you underweight. The lightest you should weigh is 108lb.

But, it's your life - calculate your BMR for the weight you want and then eat what you burned after runs.

If doing 10 miles per day at 7 min/mile figure about 900 calories a day burned running. So you'll likely get to eat about 2200 calories a day.

Interesting thread - I can't comment on the weight loss but I will take some feedback.

Training for a fall marathon

2 marathon previous:

4:11 April 2015 Marathon

3:25 October 2015 Marathon

33 y/o m - 6' 4" - current weight 223, started training 1st week of May and have been creeping up weekly mileage. Started around 30 mpw and past 2 weeks over 50 with my first GMP long run Sunday 4m easy, 4m @ 7m, 3m easy , 3m @ 7m, 2m cool down.

my starting weight was 232 - I feel like I should be losing more weight. I really want to be around 195-200 lbs by October. Is that possible?

Yeah - when you make yourself a meal do it like normal then once your ready to eat it remove 1/4 of the meal from your plate and only eat 3/4 of what you had planned. Done. Easy. You're Welcome

I have a feeling if I just continue this lead up I'll keep losing weight slowly and get close to my goal weight but I'd like to see it come off faster get some good workouts in. Thoughts?

I was totally off about my weight; I hadn't weighed myself in months but felt very heavy, maybe it's the heat? I thought I was 120 pounds but after I wrote the thread and decided to diet, I actually weighed myself and I weigh 107, so maybe I should just lose three more pounds. that's a lot easier, guess the heat makes us all feel heavy?

All you need to do is to cut any wheat flour based food after lunch. Works like a charm and is simple.

Carbo loading. The fasting stage I lost 2-3kg. Went from 245 to 235 on the Pfitzinger +70mpw plan.

Reduce processed carbs.

The only sane way to do this would be to take around 1-2 years to lose the weight. Sure you could lose it in 6 months but you are going to be totally fried and the likelihood of injury is through the roof. You may not even run better. You need to lift weights to get your metabolism high (compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, bench press, etc.) and incorporate plyometrics so you don't lose power.

I think deliberately trying to lose weight when you are already fairly lean is a bad idea. Let the training dictate what your ideal weight should be. It may end up being 100 lbs, 110 lbs or even GAINING weight to 125 lbs.

Seriously mate? wrote:

The only sane way to do this would be to take around 1-2 years to lose the weight. Sure you could lose it in 6 months but you are going to be totally fried and the likelihood of injury is through the roof. You may not even run better. You need to lift weights to get your metabolism high (compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, bench press, etc.) and incorporate plyometrics so you don't lose power.

I think deliberately trying to lose weight when you are already fairly lean is a bad idea. Let the training dictate what your ideal weight should be. It may end up being 100 lbs, 110 lbs or even GAINING weight to 125 lbs.

I agree--if you were really going to try to lose 20 pounds you would want to take at least a year to do it to stay healthy and able to train.

100 pounds at 5-4 is mighty thin but perhaps not unreasonable depending on your bone structure. I did my best marathoning at 5-5 and 107, but I have small bones and am very narrow through the hips and shoulders.